Elanco has unveiled its latest Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) report, embodying the profound message that ‘healthy animals are essential for a healthy world’.
Polly Davies, UK monogastric team lead at Elanco, said this comprehensive report underpins the company’s unwavering dedication to animal health, sustainability, inclusivity, and community engagement.
“We firmly believe that making life better for animals makes human life better, and our ESG efforts underpin this,” Ms Davies said. “By providing safe, effective products, coupled with data-backed innovation, we can help ensure that animals live healthy lives.”
Ms Davies said that Elanco offers solutions that enable livestock producers to deliver more food with fewer resources, ultimately helping make food more affordable and accessible to consumers across the globe.
The report outlines how Elanco Knowledge Solutions (EKS) oversees a range of platforms that enable customers to monitor key indicators of livestock health and quality, engage in benchmarking activities, and execute tailored analytics.
Health monitoring
For example, Elanco’s Health Tracking System (HTSi), is a globally recognised tool for monitoring broiler Intestinal Integrity (I2) gut health to reduce emissions and support profitable production; as healthy broilers digest feed more efficiently, leading to reduced waste and lower greenhouse gas emissions.
“The system captures and monitors 23 specific health indicators in broilers, enabling us to advise producers on timely, data-based management decisions to improve flock health, welfare and performance,” says Ms Davies.
In 2022, Elanco supported roughly 435 poultry customers with HTSi, encompassing over 11,000 farms worldwide.
Antimicrobial stewardship
Ms Davies explained that another key area of work is promoting responsible antimicrobial stewardship, with a lot of time invested in developing vaccines to reduce the need for antibiotics.
“Our vision is to move from treatment to prevention, by developing awareness programmes and technologies that can reduce the need for antibiotics, while promoting optimal welfare and food security,” she said.
For instance, Elanco is working with the industry to tackle Salmonella in the poultry sector, which can be transmitted to humans. The disease infects more than 90 million people around the world each year, leading to an estimated 155,000 fatalities.
“By controlling diseases in poultry through administering vaccines, such as AviPro Salmonella Duo, we also reduce potential public health risk,” said Ms Davies.
“By preventing the disease with vaccines, we reduce the potential need for antibiotic use in both birds and humans.”
Environmental footprint
The report also highlights Elanco’s efforts to minimise its environmental footprint, while leveraging product and service innovations, to help stakeholders advance their sustainability efforts.
Ms Davies said that Elanco UK is extremely proud to have built on their 2022 Investors in the Environment certification. “For 2023 we’ve been awarded the silver level certification for continual reduction in the company’s environmental impact.”
“And on a global scale, we’ve sourced approximately 12% of our electricity from renewable sources in 2022, delivering significant progress on our goal of 100% renewable electricity by 2030,” she said.
The 2022 ESG Report is available to read on the Elanco website and provides comprehensive insights into the company’s ESG performance, goals, and initiatives.
